scribblings from a deist transhumanist libertarian minarchist citizen soldier

Part of the problem is excessive government

Posted by Trevor in under other on Aug 18th, 2005 | View Comments |

Bureaucracy is evil. Sometimes by design but usually by incompetence and pettiness. Take for example, the case of the Marine who has served two tours of duty in Iraq and is being told he’ll have to pay the higher out of state tuition fees for his college education becuase he isn’t a resident of his home state.

If you live in the United States for any length of time, you’ll discover many illogical and maddeningly stupid inconveniences foisted upon citizens and visitors alike. Why do we tolerate them? The stupidity and arrogance of government can affect all of us in negative ways, from minor inconveniences to events that ruin lives. I experienced a minor inconvenience yesterday. Apparentely, it’s important to the U.S. Army that my driver’s license not expire while I’m in Iraq. The logic behind this escapes me. If my license expires will I suddenly become a crappy driver? Anyhow, I’m forced to stop my normal activities and go get my license renewed. This is inconvenient because I live in Georgia and work in Tennessee. That means I have to go back to Georgia and cut a half day out of my planned work activities.

Once I arrive at the driver’s license bureau, I’m please to discover that there isn’t much of a waiting period, but irritated because I have to pay $20 for the privilege of being forced to renew my driver’s license early in order to go to Iraq where my license is not only unnecessary but useless. Are the Iraqi traffic police going to issue me speeding tickets or something? Of course not! The purpose of renewing my driver’s license is merely to further the cause of faceless, nameless bureaucrats who I’ll never meet, but who have managed to inconvenience me anyhow.

Ah, the sweet taste of freedom! I’m free to be fingerprinted by my state. I’m free to pay a $20 fee in the furtherance of ensuring I’ll be certified by the State of Georgia to drive well while in Iraq. Sometimes, I wonder why I bother. I guess it’s because the alternative is to lay down and die, having given up. I can’t do that. It’s not in my nature.

I’m going to beat the bureaucrats or die trying.

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Trevor

Indeed.

Sometimes it's maddening. I've played the role of the bureaucrat myself, and there is nothing I have less tolerance for than a bureaucrat who revels in inconveniencing other people.

Disgusting.

Eric

I know it's old, but thought I'd comment. This sort of thing is one of the many things that drove me out of the military. Fortunately, while I was in the military, and deployed many times over the years, I had a California DL, which doesn't expire as long as you are on active duty and stationed outside the state. Although that often caused some officious clerk, during EDRE preparation, to get very upset when I showed up with my DL that was four or five years expired and the copy of the CA regulation that said it wasn't really expired. Causing that clerk pain always made me feel better! :-)

Trevor

Kitanis my friend, I wonder about government every day. Again, sometimes I'm forced to choose the lesser of two evils. Do I want to support the bad government or the really, really bad government? Well, I don't like the idea of an violent anarchist society based on fundamentalism extremism, or the idea of an all powerful dictator. . .you get my drift.

Kitanis

Hmm..

Lets see. AFI 24-302 which Supliments requirements in DOD regulation DOD 4500.36-R, "Management, Acquisition, and Use of Motor Vehicles," states that military members may operate a government vehicles with a issued state drivers licenese or a military license card (Depending on which service your in.. different forms). At deployed locations its the responsiblity of the forward posting (basing) vehicle control office for licensing or deployed requirements for operation of vehicles depending on location.

So to me.. if you go to Iraq and your Georgia License is not up to date, its not going to mean a #$@#@%! thing in the scheme of things while your in the AOR. I believe that the Army is trying to cover all the bases due to the large ammount of deployments. Too many people do not even bother to pay attention to their license and let them expire anyway.

I myself would claim the $20 on your travel voucher. You were required to get a new issue license by the military and you had to pay for it out of your own pocket. They should have to re-emburse you for your trouble.

I wonder sometimes about the "requirements" that government imposes on people.